


The Fifth Year

by StarryEyedWatson



Category: Sherlock (TV), Star Trek
Genre: F/M, I like to call this ship Khaniarty, M/M, khan and jim moriarty, possibly, sorry if this is really bad, there should be a bit of mormor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-16 08:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5820769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryEyedWatson/pseuds/StarryEyedWatson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So, this is post-everything in canon so far. I have some basic idea of where I'm going with this. I may include a prologue, simply because that might be useful. I might do an entire spinoff work based around Khan's life without Jim.</p></blockquote>





	1. Empty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is post-everything in canon so far. I have some basic idea of where I'm going with this. I may include a prologue, simply because that might be useful. I might do an entire spinoff work based around Khan's life without Jim.

_Jim Moriarty giggled as he sang along to the radio of his crappy little car, his best friend and boyfriend Khan Noonien Singh in the passenger seat beside him. Their first road trip together, to their new flat in London._

_Khan sat in the passenger seat, eating chicken nuggets, and occasionally giving a nugget to Jim. Before Jim could bite it, Khan would snatch it back, giggling at the pathetic glance Jim would give him, trying not to take his eyes off the road. "Gotta be quicker than that, Jimmy."_

_"I'm doing it on purpose. I don't actually want a nugget." Jim smirked, turning down the radio's volume a bit._

_"Of course you don't." Khan grinned and devoured another chicken nugget._

_A contented silence fell between them, filled by Jim's perfectly in-tune humming of the Disco-era music playing over the car's stereo system._

_To Jim, everything was perfect, and he knew it always would be that way._

How wrong he had been. Standing before the door of the little flat that had once been their home, Jim gave a bitter laugh, mocking his stupidity, his naivety, and walked inside. He still lived in the flat, completely alone. Well, not completely. The second-in-command of his network, Sebastian Moran, still came around on a regular basis, just to check on him. 

To check on him. As though Jim were a child. At this point, he didn't quite know what he was,  
but he wasn't a child. 

Khan was gone. He had disappeared nearly five years earlier and never come back. 

_"Jim! Jimmmm, I'm going out. We need nuggets." Khan walked into the living room where Jim sat on the couch, typing away on his laptop._

_Jim looked up and grinned. "Be back soon, darlin'."_

_"I will." Khan kissed him lightly before turning and walking out of the flat._

In restrospect, Jim often thought, he should have gone after him, should have gone with him. How Jim wished he could go back in time and wrip the laptop from the hands of his younger self and scream at him about what he would cause by believing Khan would always come back. 

As Jim sank into the couch, the same couch from all those years earlier, he closed his eyes and prepared himself for the wave of emotion and fear and sadness and self-hatred he could feel building up, preparing to wash over him when he least expected it. 

Nothing mattered, now that Khan was gone. Not the expensive Westwood suit he wore. Not the ridiculous mistakes the lower classes of his network made. Not the sunshine, not the rain, nothing. And yet, somehow Jim could feel it all more deeply. Feel the vibrancy of colours, hear the undertones and themes in music, smell, though faded, Khan's cologne on everything in the flat. 

Jim realized he was crying, but didn't bother wiping the tears away. "Let yourself cry," Sebastian had told him once, "you'll feel better if you do." This, of course, coming from a sniper, who had never shown Jim any emotion other than something akin to amusement, and some attempts at sympathy.

Brushing away the tears and ignoring Sebastian's advice, Jim gazed around his flat and considered how to fill the emptiness of the evening before deciding on playing his piano. It still didn't feel natural to just sit back and cry, not when he could be doing something. Crying was boring. Crying was...ordinary.

The high-quality, best-model-possible grand piano say in a corner of the living room, and fit in perfectly. Jim stood, sliding off his suit jacket, and rolled up his sleeves. It was easier for him to play with his sleeves rolled up. He walked over to the piano, took his seat on the bench, and began to play.

He played something new, something he had never played before, something that had just hopped from Jim's mind into his fingers. Jim had always had a gift for music, particularly piano. 

"Jim." The baritone voice cut through his playing, and startled the small man. He stood and turned towards the door, expecting Sherlock. 

Since the incident at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Jim and Sherlock had seen very little of each other. So little, in fact, that Jim was slightly surprised to find him there. 

It was not, however, Sherlock that stood in the doorway of Jim's flat, dressed in all black, looking much more muscular than last Jim had seen him. 

It was Khan, returned from the dead.


	2. Alive

Jim stared at Khan, wide-eyed, unable to believe what he was seeing, but hoping desparately that it was true. "You..." A thousand thoughts swirled through Jim's head, a thousand emotions, rendering him unable to speak. 

"The door was unlocked...which is good, I suppose because I don't remember where you like to hide the key." Khan took a step towards Jim, smiling slightly. 

"The-the potted plant...by the door..." Jim managed. 

"Oswald." 

"What?"

"We named the plant Oswald." Khan explained, taking another careful step towards Jim, as though he were an animal that might be scared off by sudden movement. "He seems to be growing well." 

"Yes," Jim nodded, "I water him every day, just like..." He paused and took in a shaky breath, sitting back down on the piano bench. "Just like you used to..."

Khan was close enough now to reach out and touch Jim's hand. The consulting criminal recoiled at his touch, pulling his hand away. 

"Jim, please, I..." Khan looked slightly hurt. "I came back..."

"You've no idea what you've done." 

"I'm sorry..."

"Sebastian's coming over later." Keeping his gaze on the ground, Jim rose to his feet. 

"Sebastian? Your...sniper?"

"Yes. It's only been five years, did it really take you that long to forget?" Jim looked up at him. 

"It's only been five years to you. I was gone..." He touched Jim's cheek lightly, and this time Jim didn't shy away. "Jim, it was nearly three hundred years...I haven't seen you in three hundred years..."

Jim stared up at him. "Khan, I..." He shook his head. "I missed you. Five years, I thought you were dead. I texted you...so many times. I tried to call. I-" He was cut off when Khan kissed him, gently wrapping his arms around Jim. 

Relaxing into his embrace, Jim how much he had missed this, missed Khan's touch. 

"Jim! JIM!" Sebastian Moran's shout wrenched them apart as the Jim's sniper ran into the flat. "Jim, your door was open, are you alright?" He took Jim's arm gently, pulling him close. 

"Yes, I'm...fine. I'm fine. Basher, look! Khan's back!" Jim pulled his arm out of Seb's grasp, grinning widely. 

Khan frowned and tilted his head. "Jim...?"

"You." Seb scowled, turning his gaze from Jim to Khan. "Do you have _any_ idea what you've done to him? How much he's gone through because of _you_?"

"And what are you going to do, Moran? Punch me? Shoot me?" Khan kept his voice terrifyingly calm. His face twisted up into a distorted smile. 

"Both. Over and over, until you've stopped moving. Then I'll crush your windpipe, then slit your throat, and it still won't come close to what you deserve." Sebastian growled and stood up a bit straighter, towering over both Jim and Khan. 

"Sebastian, I think you should go." Jim stepped between them. 

The snipers eyes flashed angrily. "Yeah. Okay. Fine." Turning on his heel, he stormed out of the flat and slammed the door behind him. 

"Jim, you didn't tell me..." Khan trailed off, looking at Jim. 

"There's a lot I need to tell you." He took Khan's arm and pulled him over to the couch.

Khan sat down stiffly, not removing his eyes from Jim. 

The consulting criminal curled up in the chair and begun to tell his story.


	3. If

Sebastian Moran stormed away from Jim's flat, mentally cursing himself for his stupidity. Had he _honestly_ thought Khan would stay gone forever? Well...yes, he had.

Just like Jim, he had thought Khan was dead. Just like Jim, he had expected him never to return. However, it didn't hurt him like it hurt Jim. For Sebastian, it meant Jim could be his without Khan interfering. 

That was what angered Sebastian. Not that Khan had come back, no. He didn't hate Khan, and it made Jim happy. What angered Sebastian was that he was losing Jim to the man that had disappeared for five years, causing the little consulting criminal more emotional and physical pain than anyone would have thought. 

If Khan had never left, things would have been very different, Sebastian realized as he walked into his own small flat. If Khan had never left, Jim wouldn't have gotten tangled up with Sherlock. If Khan had never left, Jim wouldn't have attempted suicide on several different occasions. If Khan had never left, Jim might have been more careful and not gotten kidnapped by the government. If Khan had never left, Jim wouldn't have refused to sleep, refused to _eat_ , until Sebastian had to call someone from his network that had medical knowledge. 

If Khan had never left, Jim and Sebastian's relationship would have been very different. Jim wouldn't have needed Sebastian for everything, and Seb wouldn't have had to come around as often. Sebasrian wouldn't have started staying by Jim's side while he slept, just to make sure he would actually sleep. Jim wouldn't have pulled Sebastian into bed with him, insisting "it will help me sleep, Tiger..." Tiger. How Sebastian wished he could hear Jim call him that again, stupid as it may have been. It had been Jim's pet name for Seb. _Tiger._

Sebastian collapsed onto his sofa. Jim wouldn't think of any of this, he knew. Jim would never bother wondering how much Khan's return hurt Sebastian, how much Sebastian hated being forced to leave Jim. He scrubbed a hand through his messy blond hair and sighed. He should have seen this coming. A relationship with Jim, fantastic though it might mave been at the time, never lasts. Not when you mean nothing to Jim. 

But who would have imagined Khan would return anyway? Certainly not Sebastian. Khan had seemed, from all possible angles, dead. Jim would have expected Khan to return. He was just like that. Some may call it optimism, but beyond all hope, Jim had always believed that Khan would return, and Sebastian had always known that. 

And that made Sebastian hate himself even more. He had known Jim expected Khan to return. He should have been prepared. 

"Too late now, _Basher..._ " Seb mumbled to himself. "You lost him. No point in feeling sorry for yourself." 

Sebastian stood. He had better things to do than to sit around moping. He pulled on his coat, then picked up his rifle bag and slung it over his shoulder. Jim had plenty of assignments for him to choose from, and none of which would get done by Sebastian moping. 

As he walked down the street, Sebastian decided, in the back of his mind, to use a little bit of Jim's optimism. Selfishly, he hoped something would go wrong between Khan and Jim and then maybe, _maybe_ , Jim would come back.


	4. Sleep

Khan, with Jim snuggled up to him, stared at the ceiling. He hadn't been able to sleep since he had come back, but was too afraid to wake Jim to keep him company. Not after the first night. 

On the first night Khan spent back with Jim, Jim had curled up beside him and fallen asleep, and Khan had panicked. After putting himself and his crew into cryosleep for nearly three centuries, sleep was one of the few things that Khan feared. And Jim had just fallen asleep. Just like that. As if sleep were the most natural phenomenon in the world. 

In retrospect, Khan noted, he should have realized that to Jim, sleep _was_ completely natural. Nothing to worry about, and nothing to fear. 

Their first night back together, Khan had violently shaken Jim awake, screaming at him to "Please wake up, Jim! Please! You can't go to sleep! I can't lose you, too! Not again!" 

Jim had looked scared for a moment before promising Khan that he wouldn't fall asleep again. 

Nearly a week later, Khan had gotten used to watching Jim sleep. As long as he was breathing. As long as Khan could hear his quiet snoring. As long as there was proof he was alive, Khan didn't mind. 

Glancing at Jim, Khan realized he hadn't yet told Jim what had happened while he was away. He had intended to, but....he hadn't found an oppourtunity or a way to tell him. 

"You're awake, aren't you...?" Jim mumbled. 

"Yeah..." Khan sighed softly, trailing his fingers through Jim's soft dark hair. "I can't sleep."

"You never can..." Jim snuggled closer and laid his head on Khan's chest. "Why?"

"Bad memories. That's all."

"Tell me? Might make you feel better." 

"I was in space. I told you that, didn't I? Blacked out on the street and woke up...in surgery. I was what they wanted, but they needed to modify me. Make me _better_." Khan hissed, the word poisonous to his tongue. 

"Oh...is that why you...?"

"No. I was assigned a ship and a crew of people who, like me, had been modifed to perfection. We were given a mission of world peace. Fight, stomp out the flames of war, keep the earth safe.

"It did not take long to discover the root of the problem. The reason for all the violence in the world. The human race. So, my crew and I continued our work in attaining global peace. We began a genocide of mankind, killing those we deemed unworthy."

"That's..." Jim began, unsure of exactly what to say. "Interesting."

Khan sighed. "For that, we were banished as war criminals. They put us into cryosleep, all of us, and launched our ship off into space. That's why I can't sleep. I can't stand people I love sleeping. To us...sleep was death. Sleep meant closing your eyes for a hundred years and waking to find your world completely changed, or not waking at all."

Jim stroked Khan's chest lightly, a comforting motion. "You're safe. You can sleep now."

"I know. I just...I can't." Khan wrapped his arms around Jim and drew him close, pressing his face into Jim's hair. "Maybe eventually."

Jim yawned. "Maybe." He closed his eyed and quickly fell asleep, safe in Khan's arms. 

Khan sighed softly, listening as Jim quietly began to snore. "I love you, Jim Moriarty..." He mumbles into his hair. "I always will, I swear it."


	5. Family

A quiet, haunting melody drifted theough the still flat filling up the empty silence. Gentle morning light bled through the curtains, showering everything with crisp, cold light. Jim sat at his piano, pale fingers dancing gracefully over the keys as he played whatever notes sprang to his mind. Aside from being a criminal mastermind, Jim was something of a musical genius, too. He could see every note, feel what was supposed to follow. How to build a melody, crescendo the sound from calm gentleness into rage and intensity, then bring the music back down. An ocean of sound, he thought he might call it. Raging calm and gentle storms, all blended together in perfect harmony. 

That was why he like to create his own music. Sheet music was far too strict, too limiting. Writing music, he had found, was one of the best ways to express how he felt and calm himself down. 

Khan lay on the couch, sleeping fitfully. His pained expression and obvious nightmares were almost enough to make Jim regret drugging him with a sleep aid. Almost. He hadn't slept in nearly two weeks, so Jim didn't have a choice. Two weeks was far too long for anyone to go without sleeping, Jim knew that from personal experience. 

A quiet knock on the front door drew Jim's fingers away from the keys. He smiled slightly. Perhaps Sebastian had come to apologize. He hadn't seen the sniper since he had stormed out, and was still expecting him to come back to apologize for threatening Khan. He walked over to the door and opened it, and his smile faded. 

The tall woman who stood in the doorway was not smiling. "Where is he?" she asked. Her accent was thick, and not one Jim recognized. 

Lying on the couch, Khan twitched and cried out in his sleep. The woman pushed past Jim and hurried over to Khan, kneeling beside him. Her long, dark, straight hair hung over her shoulders, falling into her face as she leaned over Khan. "I've got you now, love..." she mumbled as she picked him up. 

"Mummy, is daddy going to be okay?" A young girl that Jim hadn't noticed before still stood in the doorway, her pale, grey-blue eyes wide with fear.

"Don't worry, little star, he'll be perfectly fine." She gave the little girl a reassuring smile. 

Khan's eyelids fluttered, and his lips twitched up into a smile. "Ara..."

"Who are you? What're you doing with Khan?" Jim scowled. He suddenly wished he had his gun, but it sat in a drawer in the bedroom, unreachable. 

"Ara Lavica Singh. I'm taking my husband back." She held Khan gently, protectively, and glared at Jim. "You drugged him."

"He needed to sleep." Jim was a bit scared now. "When did Khan get a wife? And...a daughter?"

"He's had Karolin and I for over three hundred years." Ara walked towards the door, still holding Khan. It was evident to Jim that she wasn't going to let him go. 

"Wait, please, don't go. I'll make you some coffee, and we can talk..."

Ara looked at the girl, Karolin, and at Khan, then finally at Jim. Neither Karolin nor Ara were dressed warmly enough for London's chill, not in jeans and thin tee-shirts. 

"Please, mummy? It's cold...I don't want to go back out on the street..." Karolin took a step forwards into the flat.

Ara sighed. "Alright." She laid Khan back down on the couch.

Jim picked up a fuzzy, grey blanket and draped it around Karolin's shoulders. She gave him a wary smile and pulled the blanket tightly around herself.

"Have you got anything warm to drink?" Ara asked, looking around Jim's flat. Looking everywhere but at Jim. "Or eat?"

"Yeah, we do." Khan mumbled. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, finally starting to recover from the sleep aid. 

"Daddy!" Karolin ran over and jumped on top of him. She hugged him tightly. "You're okay!"

"Of course I'm okay." Khan smiled slightly, wrapping his arms around her. "And now that you're here, you and your mummy are going to be okay, too."

\---

A hot cup of tea and a half an hour later, Jim, Khan, and Ara sat around the kitchen table as Jim tried desparately to learn more of Khan and Ara's story. Karolin was curled up on the couch in the living room, sipping hot chocolate and watching The Little Mermaid. Jin wasn't sure where he had found the DVD, or even why he had it, but he did, and now Karolin was watching it contentedly.

"Jim, I may have failed to mention Ara in earlier accounts of what transpired." Khan said, barely hiding a yawn. He was still recovering from the effects of the soporific, and had insisted on making the tea himself. 

"You forgot me?" Ara scowled. "How could you just 'forget' me and Karolin? We're your family."

"I didn't say I had forgotten," Khan protested. "I was trying to protect Jim."

"I don't need protecting, Khan, you should have been honest with me initially." Jim scowled. 

"You know I love both of you..." Khan was starting to look a bit scared. He reached out to touch Ara's cheek. "I do. I really do."

She shied away, turning her head so he couldn't touch her. "Really? Because it doesn't seem like it."

He looked to Jim. "Jimmy, I-"

"Lied to me to protect me? Didn't think they'd find you? Well look around you, Khan. They're here." Jim's Irish accent was thicker than usual, a good indication that he was upset. 

"I know." Khan's shoulders slumped in defeat. "I'm sorry."

Ara looked at Jim. "Do you mind if Karolin and I stay here a while longer? We haven't got anywhere else to go."

"There's a spare bedroom." Jim smiled slightly. He had to admit, he kind of liked Ara. 

"We were forced to marry, Jim. In space. We were allowed a choice in who we married, but we had to choose a partner. Had to be productive. Reproduce so that once our mission was completed-" Khan began. 

"Oh, _shut up._ " Ara snapped. "I'll explain it to him. He had no way of knowing when you are keaving out important details." She looked back at Jim. "What he said is. accurate. We were forced to reproduce. He was very reluctant to choose anyone, I realize now that is because he loves you. They beat him for his reluctance, punished him for being disobedient, so I chose him. I did not speak, in space. Not at all." She looked to Khan, reluctant to go on. "He was kind. He was strong. He protected me from them when they tried to hurt me for not speaking. So I began to speak to him, and only him."

Khan gave her a soft smile as he reached over and tucked her hair behind her ear. 

"I lost ability to communicate while he was in space..." Jim mumbled. He looked up at Khan and Ara. "Stopped speaking in English, and used my native Irish. Sebastian couldn't understand me. He speaks English, German, and Russian, but not Irish."

Ara looked calmer now, almost happy. She leaned her head into Khan's touch as she listened to Jim. "This should work well, then. I speak Irish, Khan does not. I can translate for if if you ever need it."

Jim looked to Khan, who looked almost as happy as Ara. "Yes, I think that's a very good idea." He smiled as he watched them. "I think you should stay for a very long time."


End file.
